The funny thing about quality is everyone has a different opinion of what determines a quality product. Quality is kind of like beauty — where one's opinion of beauty can greatly differ from the next person, so can opinions widely differ on quality. Additionally, quality can often be sacrificed to make a delivery timeline or meet production deadlines, meaning quality can also be a moving target. This can make developing a quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) plan for a finishing process more art than science.

In reality, the final judge for product quality is the customer, as they are the arbitrator of what is important or acceptable about a product's finish. A customer's opinion about quality can be influenced by the value of the finish on a product. For instance, if a product is functional in use, then the finish quality may not be very important. However, if a product is decorative in use or a functional product used in a decorative application, then the finish quality is extremely important.

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